wise. 


®lje  (Hhnstiatt’a  (fklh 


AND  THE 


ICttighom  0  Wealth 


In  this  age  of  the  ‘ Square 
Deal’  let  us  not  forget  that 
Qod  also  is  interested.  ” 


/Orr 

'  *lt  '•»>  »2 


THE  CHRISTIAN’S  GOLD 


AND  THE  KINGDOM’S  WEALTH 


A  PLEA  FOR  INTELLIGENT,  DELIBERATE, 
AND  SYSTEMATIC  GIVING 


BY 

LUTHER  ELLSWORTH  LOVEJOY,  D.  D. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE  COMMITTEE 

OP  THE 

FIRST  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 

PONTIAC.  MICHIGAN 


“Bring  ye  the  whole  tithe  into 
the  storehouse,  that  there  may 
be  meat  in  mine  house,  and 
prove  me  now  herewith,  saith 
the  Ivord  of  hosts,  if  I  will  not 
open  you  the  windows  of 
heaven,  and  pour  you  out  a 
blessing,  that  there  shall  not 
be  room  enough  to  receive  it.’  ’ 
— Malachi  iii.  10. 

“Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week 
let  each  one  of  you  lay  by  him 
in  store,  as  he  may  prosper, 
that  no  collections  be  made 
when  I  come.”— 1  Corinthians 
xvi.  2. 


THE  CHRISTIAN’S  GOLD 

AND  THE 


KINGDOM’S  WEALTH 


S  REGARDS  material  things,  there 
~  ^  are  two  perennial  questions  in  the 
minds  of  earnest  Christian  people. 

What  means  shall  we  take  for  the 
adequate  support  of  the  ever  needy 
church?”  “How  much  ought  I  to  give 
to  the  church  and  its  benevolences,  and 
on  what  principle  ought  I  to  base  my 
contributions?”  These  questions  are 
among  the  most  serious  we  have  to  face, 
and  until  both  are  answered  there  is  no 
settled  peace  for  either  Church  or 
Christian. 

I  desire  to  suggest  a  method  of  Church 
Finance  which  I  have  personally  prac¬ 
ticed  for  years,  with  the  greatest  of 
satisfaction,  and  which  has  been  tested 
in  many  churches,  with  unfailing  success 
wherever  given  a  fair  and  complete  trial. 
This  method  of  Christian  giving  which 
I  am  about  to  suggest  might  well  be 


called  a  “short  cut”  to  church  pros¬ 
perity,  for  I  am  convinced  that  it  would, 
if  made  universal,  revolutionize  our 
temporal  conditions.  All  short  cuts  are 
rugged  and  difficult,  calling  for  heroic 
sacrifice  and  endeavor.  Mine  is  no 
exception.  But  it  is  ancient  and  authori- 
tive.  It  is  “the  King’s  Highway.” 
The  wisest  man  of  old  approved  it — 
“Honor  the  Ford  with  thy  substance, 
and  with  the  first  fruits  of  thine  in¬ 
crease.”  The  last  prophet  of  the  Mosaic 
dispensation  thundered  its  enforcement — 
“Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the  store¬ 
house.”  This  is  the  key  to  the  whole 
problem.  For  the  temporal  part  of  our 
worship  God  asks  that  we  lay  aside  at 
least  one-tenth  of  our  income  and  devote 
it  to  his  service. 

Tet  me  relieve  your  minds  at  the  out¬ 
set  by  saying  that  it  is  not  my  purpose 
to  impose  this  rule  as  an  obligation  upon 
this  church  or  any  member  of  it.  That 
I  do  not  think  it  would  be  profitable  for 
us  to  enter  into  any  prolonged  contro¬ 
versy  on  the  subject,  but  that  if  any 
Christian  is  perplexed  as  to  his  personal 


duty  in  this  matter,  or  if  any  convert 
desires  help  in  adjusting  the  obligations 
of  his  new  life  to  practical  conduct,  this 
method  is  offered  as  one  which  has  given 
universal  satisfaction  to  those  who  have 
honestly  tried  it. 

I  shall  be  met  at  once  with  this 
question:  “Is  not  the  law  of  the  tenth 
a  Jewish  law,  no  longer  binding  upon 
God's  people?”  But  am  not  I  as  good 
as  a  Jew?  Should  my  loyalty  to  God’s 
kingdom  be  less  than  his?  Shall  a  son 
be  less  generous  than  a  servant?  But 
the  principle  of  the  tithe  is  not  Jewish 
law  alone.  It  is  an  ancient  and  univer¬ 
sal  religious  principle.  Four  hundred 
years  before  God  spake  to  Moses  Abra¬ 
ham  paid  tithes  to  Melchisedec.  A  few 
years  later  young  Jacob,  fleeing  from  a 
home  in  which  he  was  no  longer  wel¬ 
come,  his  only  possessions  a  mantle  and 
a  staff,  met  God  on  the  way,  in  a  vision 
of  the  night,  and  promised  him:  “if 
thou  wilt  feed  and  clothe  me,  and  bring 
me  back  again,  of  all  that  thou  givest 
me  I  will  surely  give  the  tenth  unto 
thee.”  Then  when  Moses  came  he 


incorporated  this  principle  into  Jewish 
law,  and  evermore  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
chosen  people  to  render  unto  God  by 
tenths, — most  of  the  time  paying  two 
tenths,  and  in  some  years  three. 

The  Phoenicians,  Carthaginians,  Chal¬ 
deans,  Egyptians,  and  other  pagan 
nations  practiced  the  principle  of  the 
tithe.  If  godless  heathen  cheerfully 
brought  tithes  to  the  worship  of  their 
idols,  what  ought  the  disciple  of  the 
Son  of  God  to  do?  “But  did  not  Paul 
say,  ‘Eet  every  man  give  as  God  hath 
prospered  him?’  ”  Yes,  over  and  above 
his  regular  contributions, — a  “special 
collection”  for  the  impoverished  saints  at 
Jerusalem.  “But  did  he  not  say,  ‘  We  are 
no  longer  under  law  but  under  grace?’  ” 
To  be  sure,  but  isn’t  grace  a  queer 
weapon  with  which  to  rob  God?  “But 
did  he  not  say,  ‘Not  grudgingly,  nor  of 
necessity,  for  God  loveth  a  cheerful 
giver?’  ”  No  doubt,  but  some  men  can 
give  a  tenth  cheerfully  while  others 
almost  suffer  nervons  prostration  if  the 
stewards  “pass  the  hat.”  Cheerfulness 


and  grudgingness  depend  not  on  amount 
but  on  disposition. 

If  the  pious  old  Jew,  grubbing  away 
on  his  rocky  hillside,  with  spade  in  one 
hand  and  sword  in  the  other,  could  dig 
out  one  dollar  for  God  for  every  nine 
he  kept,  what  does  love  demand  of  me, 
in  this  fertile,  peaceful,  liberty-encircled, 
sun- kissed,  shower-blessed,  enlightened 
Christian  land?  If  faithful  Abraham, 
who  had  only  seven  pages  of  my  Oxford 
Bible  for  his  gospel,  if  patient  Job,  who 
never  heard  of  Jesus,  if  Jacob,  and 
David,  and  Daniel,  and  Ezra,  and  Isaiah, 
looking  forward  by  faith  alone  to  a  Christ 
who  should  come  after,  felt  bound  to 
pay  God  their  tenth;  what  of  me,  who 
have  heard  the  blessed  story  of  the  babe 
in  Bethlehem,  who  have  drunk  of  the 
water  of  life,  who  have  met  and  loved 
the  Good  Shepherd,  who  have  read 
over  from  childhood,  “Let  not  your 
heart  be  troubled.  ...  In  my  Father’s 
house  are  many  mansions,”  “Love 
never  faileth,”  who  have  seen  by  faith 
Jesus  lifted  up  upon  the  cross,  have 
seen  the  Lord  arise  from  the  dead,  who 


have  heard  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  saying 
to  my  soul,  “Son,  thy  sins  are  forgiven 
thee,  for  his  name’s  sake?” 

Jesus  commended  this  ancient  princi¬ 
ple.  He  says:  “Ye  tithe  mint,  and 
rue,  and  all  manner  of  herb,  .  .  .  these 
ought  ye  to  have  done.”  The  apostles 
must,  certainly,  with  all  loyal  Jews, 
have  practiced  it,  and  never,  so  far  as 
any  bible  statement  indicates,  did  they 
revoke  it.  Does  it  not  seem  that  if  Jesus 
had  intended  that  so  ancient  and  con¬ 
spicuous  a  duty  should  be  abolished  he 
or  his  apostles  would  surely  have  men¬ 
tioned  it?  On  this  very  argument  we 
defend  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath,  that, 
though  Jesus  never  mentiones  it,  he 
does  not  revoke  it. 

The  tithe  principle  would  seem  there¬ 
fore  to  be  as  obligatory  upon  the  modern 
as  upon  the  ancient  church.  Indeed, 
for  many  hundreds  of  years,  history 
tells  us,  the  church  did  observe  the  law 
of  the  tithe.  But  papal  abuse,  antino- 
mian  lawlessness,  and  personal  selfish¬ 
ness  well-nigh  drove  it  from  the  face  of 
the  earth.  In  view  of  all  her  splendid 


achievement  in  other  things,  what  a 
backsliding  on  the  part  of  the  church  in 
the  matter  of  her  temporal  relations  with 
God!  Once  the  ardent  convert,  perse¬ 
cuted  by  the  heathen,  laughed  at  by  the 
world,  with  property  and  life  in  danger 
from  mob  and  torch,  came  and  gladly 
laid  down  his  tenth  at  the  Master’s  feet. 
Today  we  go  about  with  a  subscription 
paper,  a  kind  of  yard-stick  by  which 
each  man  can  measure  his  own  gift  by 
his  neighbor’s,  or  with  a  mite  box,  or  a 
bowl  of  oyster  stew,  or  a  saucer  of 
maple  syrup,  and  bid  the  people  from 
the  highways  and  hedges,  come  in, — to 
the  gospel  feast? — to  contribute  fifteen 
cents  apiece  to  help  carry  on  our 
churches!  Oh,  how  the  Master  must  look 
down  upon  Zion  with  apologetic  shame, 
when  he  sees  her  leaders  worrying  over 
the  outcome  of  the  next  ice-cream  social. 

Nothing  here  is  to  be  understood  as 
an  attack  upon  the  more  social  features 
of  church  life,  when  carried  on  with 
dignity,  if  the  primary  object  is  a  larger 
social  fraternity,  even  where  admission 
fees  are  charged  and  a  little  surplus 


secured.  That  is  another  question,  to 
be  discussed  apart  and  on  its  own  merits. 
But,  in  general,  having  abandoned  God’s 
plan  of  church  finances,  the  modern 
Christian  makes  it  a  study  to  see  how 
little  he  can  give  and  ease  his  conscience, 
and  the  modern  pastor,  who  is  compelled 
to  be  a  money-raiser,  must  make  it  his 
study  to  see  how  much  he  can  get  the 
people  to  give  by  working  upon  the 
emotions  and  enthusiasm  of  his  hearers. 
Over  against  all  this  I  now  make  a  plea 
for  a  Scriptual  giving  of  the  tenth  on 
four  distinct  grounds. 

I. 

3T  PAYS  GOD.  Very  few  of  the 
members  of  our  churches  pay  one- 
tenth  of  their  income  to  the  Ford’ 
treasury.  Suppose  now,  every  member 
of  your  average  church  should  begin 
tomorrow  morning  to  lay  aside  one- 
tenth  of  his  income  for  this  purpose. 
What  would  result?  First,  the  church 
would  meet  all  its  current  expenses 
promptly,  without  trouble  or  embarrass¬ 
ment.  The  pastor  would  be  spared  his 


frequent  benevolence  “agonies,”  but, 
next  Easter  morning,  for  example,  after 
preaching  an  Easter  sermon,  he  would 
make  the  simple  announcement,  “This 
is  Foreign  Missions  Day;  come  and  lay 
your  gifts  upon  this  table.”  And  the 
thing  would  be  done.  No  blackboard, 
no  trick,  no  “springing”  a  collection  on 
a  reluctant  congregation.  The  claims 
of  pastor,  district  superintendent,  bish¬ 
ops  and  superannuates  would  be  paid  in 
full,  and  a  large  payment  made  yearly 
on  that  ancient  debt. 

Let  me  bring  a  few  facts  in  support  of 
this.  And  I  shall  ask  pardon  for  appeal¬ 
ing  at  once  to  my  own  experience,  for  I 
know  most  about  that.  My  first  charge, 
a  village  circuit,  had  paid  to  all  benevo¬ 
lences  the  year  before  my  coming  $49. 
That  year  it  paid  $150,  and  the  second 
year,  $200.  A  large  part  of  this  was 
tithe  money.  A  church  to  which  I  was 
appointed  soon  after  that  I  found  almost 
hopelessly  burdened  with  a  debt  which 
had  been  contracted  in  the  building  of  a 
splendid  new  edifice.  The  first  year  of 
my  appointment  there  the  church,  for 


the  first  time  in  years,  paid  its  full 
apportionment,  the  largest  in  its  history. 
A  good  portion  of  this  was  tithe  money. 
The  following  year,  when  the  tithing 
principle  was  introduced  on  a  larger 
scale,  our  Sunday  School  and  Woman’s 
Missionary  Society  nearly  doubled  all 
former  gifts,  and  our  total  benevolent 
offerings  far  exceeded  our  apportion¬ 
ments.  The  third  year  the  debt,  which 
it  had  been  prophesied  by  friends  and 
enemies  of  the  church  alike,  would 
never  be  paid  and  would  bankrupt  the 
church,  was  entirely  cancelled,  and  the 
church  has  led  a  prosperous  life  ever 
since.  This  was  not  all  done  by  tithing, 
but  tithing  made  it  possible.  In  the 
next  church  I  served,  where  the  tithing 
idea  was  hospitably  received,  the  general 
missionary  offering  increased  in  four 
years  1000  per  cent.  One  day  a  young 
lady  teacher  called  at  my  door  and  left 
me  $2.50  for  missions,  and  a  few  days 
later  $3.00,  and  a  few  days  afterward, 
$3.00  more.  And  a  neighboring  pastor, 
within  whose  charge  she  was  teaching, 
told  me  that  she  had  just  paid  him  $10 


for  the  same  object.  All  out  of  a 
country  teacher’s  wages.  She  looked 
very  happy,  and  thanked  me  for  teach¬ 
ing  her  to  tithe. 

It  was  at  about  this  time  that  the  pastor 
of  one  of  Michigan’s  leading  churches 
wrote  me  that  his  large  gift  to  help 
cancel  the  great  Missionary  Society  debt 
was  contributed  by  two  of  his  tithing 
members.  The  pastor  of  a  large  church 
in  Western  Michigan,  where  the  tithing 
plan  had  been  introduced,  wrote  me: 

Our  church  expenses  are  being  met  as 
never  before.  A  young  man  came  to 
me  the  other  evening  and  asked  me  to 
direct  him  to  some  worthy  object  of 
benevolence,  as  his  tithe  was  accumu¬ 
lating.  At  least  eight  members  of  our 
Official  Board  are  now  giving  a  tenth, 
and  others  are  laboring  under  increasing 
conviction  on  the  subject.”  I  inquired 
of  a  village  pastor  in  Northern  Michigan 
how  tithing  worked  in  his  church.  I 
condense  his  laconic  reply:  “A  small 
band  of  ten  per  cent,  of  membership, 
with  average  ability  to  give,  last  year 
paid  over  25  per  cent,  total  church  re- 


ceipts.  Last  year  all  old  debts  cancelled, 
pastor’s  salary  increased,  benevolences 
400  per  cent,  in  advance  of  two  years 
ago.  This  year  finances  very  easy. 
Stewards  rub  hands  and  laugh  at  way  it 
comes  in  without  work.  Benevolences 
will  reach  800  per  cent,  advance  of  two 
years  ago.  Stewards  recommended  last 
meeting  to  increase  pastor’s  salary  $100 
to  use  up  surplus  funds.” 

One  of  the  secrets  of  the  remarkable 
success  of  the  late  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon’s 
Clarendon  St.  Baptist  Church,  Boston, 
was  its  almost  universal  custom  of  tith¬ 
ing,  and  the  astonishing  deliverance 
from  financial  despair  a  few  years  ago  of 
Wesley  Chapel,  Cincinnati,  the  old 
mother  church  of  Ohio  Methodism,  by 
a  resort  to  the  tithing  principle,  is  matter 
of  common  knowledge  today. 

“But  your  scheme  of  a  tenth  is  narrow 
and  formal,”  someone  objects.  “My 
property  is  all  the  Lord’s;  I  am  just  his 
steward.”  Very  good.  I  salute  you. 
But  surely,  if  all  your  money  is  God’s, 
you  won’t  object  to  letting  him  have  the 
use  of  a  tenth  part  of  it,  will  you? 


Many  of  the  Lord’s  stewards  like  to  use 
his  money  mostly  for  their  own  comfort. 
God  likes  to  have  his  money  in  circu¬ 
lation.  He  can  use  one  dollar  better  in 
his  own  possession  than  he  can  his  whole 
ten  in  the  bottom  of  your  pocket. 

On  a  careful  estimate  of  the  aggregate 
income  of  the  people  of  one  of  my  early 
churches — and  that  during  a  period  of 
financial  panic — I  discovered  that  uni¬ 
versal  tithing  would  pay  all  our  current 
expenses,  even  when  increased  by  many 
percent.,  which  was  greatly  needed,  pay 
all  interest,  double  our  benevolences, 
and  pay  from  $1,000  to  $2,000  yearly  on 
our  debt. 

How  God’s  ancient  and  simple  plan 
would  relieve  us  of  the  grinding  burdens 
of  church  finance.  And  have  we  treated 
him  fairly  until  we  have  tested  his  plan? 
How  our  stewards,  relieved  of  the 
eternal  agony  of  current  expenses,  could 
spend  their  time  looking  after  the  spirit¬ 
ual  interests  of  Christ’s  flock.  How 
our  godly  women  could  give  their  ener¬ 
gies  to  the  Master’s  service,  if  they  could 
be  relieved  of  doughnuts  and  embroid- 


ery.  Oh,  when  I  think  of  the  tremen¬ 
dous  waste  of  holy  energy  necessitated 
by  our  infidel  methods  of  church  work, 
my  heart  burns  within  me. 

II. 

3PL,EAD  for  the  tithe,  secondly, 
because  it  pays  me.  A  glance  at 
the  national  history  of  the  Jews  reveals 
the  fact  that,  just  as  they  observed  the 
law  of  the  tithe,  they  prospered.  But 
when  Jehovah  was  forgotten,  and  his 
Sabbaths  used  for  traffic,  and  his  treas¬ 
ury  robbed  for  self  and  idol  gods,  then 
disaster  and  desolation  came,  and  the 
locust,  and  the  palmer- worm,  and  the 
alien  arm3r,  destroyed  their  fields  and 
cities.  Would  it  be  a  sure  symptom  of 
fanaticism  to  believe  that  the  Father, 
who  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads, 
also  gives  a  special  care  to  those  who 
keep  his  law?  A  wealthy  layman  of 
Chicago  has  for  years  published  a  pam¬ 
phlet  in  which  he  gives  hundreds  of 
testimonials  from  business  men  all  over 
the  country  showing  that  they  have  been 
specially  cared  for  and  prospered  since 


obedience  to  this  principle. 

And  there  is  a  natural  reason  for  all 
this.  How  much  stronger  is  a  man  for 
business  with  a  clear  conscience.  When 
a  man  can  step  out  and  face  the  world 
and  say:  “I’ve  tried  to  do  my  duty  to 
God  and  man,”  he  can  defy  men  and 
devils  to  overthrow  him.  He  can  say: 
“if  I  rise,  I  rise  with  a  clear  conscience; 
if  I  fail  and  go  to  the  poor-house,  I  go 
as  a  king.”  It  adds  buoyancy  to  his 
spirit  and  courage  to  his  endeavors. 
Tithing  compels  system  in  family 
finance  and  saves  its  cost  by  cultivating 
thrifty  and  economical  methods.  So  that 
tithers  more  than  once  have  told  me  that 
their  nine-tenths  go  farther  than  their 
ten -tenths  used  to  do. 

A  very  intelligent  young  lady  told  me 
five  or  six  }^ears  ago  that  her  salary  had 
been  increased  nearly  every  year  since 
she  began  tithing.  And  less  than  a 
week  ago  one  of  my  trustees  told  me 
that  twelve  years  ago,  early  in  his  busi¬ 
ness  career,  he  promised  to  pay  God  the 
tenth,  and  that  nearly  every  year  since 
that  time  his  salary  had  been  increased, 


while  the  last  raise,  just  granted,  had 
almost  doubled  anything  before  received, 
affording  a  splendid  income.  I  said  to 
one  of  my  stewards  one  hard  winter: 
“The  tithing  system  would  save  our 
debt-burdened  church.’ ’  “it  is  saving 
me,”  he  quickly  replied.  “I  wouldn’t 
dare  ask  God  to  bless  my  factory  unless 
I  dealt  justly  with  him,  and  though 
these  hard  times  have  paralyzed  my 
business,  I  have  had  twice  as  much  as 
my  competitor.”  Another  steward  told 
me,  after  I  had  preached  on  tithing:  “I 
never  had  the  faith  to  practice  this 
before,  though  I  have  believed  in  it,  but 
we  began  last  Monday  morning,  and 
this  has  been,  financially,  the  happiest 
week  of  my  life.” 

Yes,  and  it  pays  spiritually  as  well  as 
temporally.  It  leaves  one’s  glad  heart 
free  for  service.  It  increases  capacity 
for  devotion.  It  forbids  a  paralysis  of 
generosity,  and  makes  it  impossible  to 
narrow  down  one’s  gifts  to  God,  as  so 
often  happens  when  one  increases  in 
wealth  and  its  absorptions.  One  could 
Jtardly  grow  covetous,  or  forget  his  God, 


while  he  paid  each  week  his  tenth  into 
the  Lord’s  treasury. 

III. 

jtf  ECAUSE  it  is  pleasant  I  plead  for 
15*  the  tithe  plan.  Many  a  man  of  my 
acquaintance  could  tell  you  today  how 
precious  has  become  that  quiet  corner  in 
the  house  where  the  little  tithe  box  is 
kept.  It  makes  the  house  sacred  when 
you  have  somewhere  hidden  in  it  a  little 
ark  of  God  containing'  his  treasure.  It 
makes  your  ledger  a  holier  book  when 
one  page  is  a  God-page.  It  gives  a  new 
worth  to  your  check-book  when  every 
now  and  then  a  stub  records  your  loyalty 
to  the  King.  How  cheerfully,  too,  one 
pays  out  his  tenth  when  he  recalls  that 
for  every  dollar  that  he  uses  for  God, 
God  has  given  him  nine  for  his  own  use. 
This  plan  lifts  our  giving  far  above  all 
emotional,  impulsive,  or  selfish  motives 
for  doing  our  duty.  And  how  pleasant 
to  have  the  financial  success  of  God’s 
work  shifted  from  our  shoulders  to  his. 
If  the  minister  or  the  benevolences  fall 
short  our  conscience  is  clear,  if  we  have 


done  our  full  duty.  God  then  becomes 
responsible  for  results. 

It  is  pleasant  because  it  is  fair,  fair  to 
rich  and  poor  alike.  “But  would  you 
expect  the  poor  to  tithe?”  Why  not? 
The  worst  thing  we  can  do  for  the  poor 
man  is  to  rob  him  of  the  joy  of  a  whole¬ 
hearted  and  self-sacrificing  service  of  his 
God,  or  to  pauperize  him  by  paying  for 
his  gospel.  If  God  owns  the  “cattle 
upon  a  thousand  hills”  He  can  manage 
to  furnish  the  poor  man  enough  extra 
money  to  be  honest  with  himself  and 
the  Kingdom.  But  the  objections  are 
not  from  the  poor.  I  never  yet  heard  a 
poor  Christian  find  fault  with  this  plan, 
though  often  the  question  of  how  it  is  to 
be  done  is  serious.  The  wealthy  are 
often  the  ones  who  find  the  scheme  so 
difficult  to  comprehend  and  to  practice. 
And  you  can  see  the  reason;  as  men 
grow  wealthy  their  tenth  becomes  so 
large  it  becomes  more  and  more  difficult 
to  part  with  it.  Oh,  if  men  could  once 
learn  the  joy  of  a  large  gift.  Think  of 
the  luxury  of  laying  down  $500,  or 
$1,000,  or  $10,000,  as  your  tithe,  and 


then  standing  off  one  side  and  waiting  to 
see  what  glorious  things  can  be  done 
with  it. 

How  many  noble  Christian  men,  per¬ 
plexed  as  to  duty,  ask  themselves  daily, 

‘  What  ought  I  to  give?  How  much 
can  I  afford  this  year?”  The  tenth  plan 
furnishes  the  solution.  This  may  ex¬ 
plain  in  part  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
tithe  idea.  Twenty  years  ago  tithing 
was  looked  upon  as  a  freak,  and  it 
required  a  courageous  man  to  confess  it. 
Today  I  could  find  you  scores  of  promi¬ 
nent  laymen,  and  scores  of  ministers, — 
poor  ministers  on  our  northern  circuits, 
prominent  ministers  in  our  city  pulpits, 
who  practice  from  year  to  year  the  tenth 
plan.  In  the  Christian  Endeavor  Society 
is  the  great  Tenth  Eegion;  in  the  Ep- 
worth  Teagues  of  the  world  the  Christian 
Stewardship  Enrollment.  All  are  pledged 
to  the  principle  of  the  tenth  for  God. 

This  way  of  giving  is  pleasant  because 
it  is  dignified,  and  wholly  worthy  of  the 
Christian  church.  It  would  do  much  to 
drive  pauperism  and  beggary  from  our 
midst.  How  much  of  pleading  and 


scheming,  and  campaigning,  how  much 
shameful  humiliation  and  compromising 
with  the  world  it  would  banish  from  the 
church! 


IV. 

HIS  way  of  paying  our  debt  to  God 
Vtr  thus  becomes  the  way  of  duty. 
The  golden  grain  of  the  mission  fields, 
ripe  for  the  holy  harvest,  is  left  to  rot 
upon  the  ground  for  want  of  reapers. 
The  dense  populations  of  our  great  cities 
are  crying  for  light  and  God.  Yet  our 
churches  are  loaded  with  debt,  finan¬ 
cially  embarrassed,  and  our  Christian 
communities  honey-combed  with  pauper¬ 
izing  methods  of  church  finance.  We 
can  afford  to  travel  all  over  the  conti¬ 
nent,  all  over  Europe,  to  attend  con¬ 
ventions,  buy  phonographs  and  auto¬ 
mobiles,  build  fine  houses,  wear  princely 
raiment,  make  costly  presents,  but  we 
can’t  afford  to  be  honest  with  God. 

“I  would  begin  to  tithe  if  others 
would,”  you  say,  “but  it  isn’t  fair  for 
only  a  few.”  I  know  it,  but  why  deny 
yourself  a  great  joy,  or  God  his  much- 


needed  portion,  because  others  do?  “But 
I’m  in  debt.  Ought  a  man  to  give 
before  he  pays  his  debts?”  Well,  do 
you  buy  Christmas  or  birthday  presents 
before  you  pay  your  debts?  Or  candy 
for  the  children,  or  valentines,  or 
souvenir  post-cards,  for  your  friends? 
And  would  you  refuse  to  help  a  starving 
neighbor  until  all  debts  were  paid? 
Indeed,  by  managing  to  keep  a  little  in 
debt  a  man  could  justify  himself  in 
refusing  all  charity,  and  all  religious 
obligations,  his  whole  life  long. 

But,  after  all,  this  tithing  is  not  giv¬ 
ing,  it  itself  is  debt-paying.  Whom  do 
you  owe  first  of  all?  Hasn’t  God  a  large 
account  against  you?  Who  advanced 
your  capital,  your  life,  your  talent,  your 
health,  and  the  favorable  conditions 
which  have  enabled  you  to  make  money? 
“It  is  God  that  giveth  thee  the  power  to 
get  wealth.”  Why  not  make  Him  a 
“preferred  creditor?”  “But  I  may  not 
have  my  income  after  this  year.”  Very 
well,  when  you  don’t  have  it,  you  won’t 
have  to  tithe  it.  Oh,  Brother,  remem¬ 
ber  who  gave  you  the  skill,  the  educa- 


tion,  the  genius,  that  has  made  your 
success  possible.  “How  much  owest 
thou  unto  my  Ford?” 

“But,”  you  say,  “I  am  not  a  member 
of  this  church,  my  membership  is  off 
yonder  in  another  town.”  That’s  handy, 
isn’t  it?  But  does  that  cancel  your 
obligation  to  God?  Has  he  ceased  to 
be  good  to  you?  “But  we  don’t  expect 
to  live  here  much  longer.”  Indeed, 
you  won’t;  you’ll  soon  be  in  another 
world.  Did  you  know  that  a  church 
letter,  or  the  prospect  of  moving  away 
sometime,  is  a  most  convenient  device 
for  dodging  God?  When  the  Father 
refuses  longer  to  give  you  food,  when  he 
ceases  to  send  his  rain  and  his  sun  upon 
you,  when  he  no  longer  answers  your 
prayers,  when  he  snatches  from  you  the 
hope  of  heaven,  and  when  Jesus  an¬ 
nounces  from  the  sky  that  his  atoning 
blood  no  longer  avails  for  you,  then  you 
may  say:  “I  have  no  debt  to  God.” 
Till  then  you  owe  him  your  life,  your 
breath,  and  all  the  joys  you  have. 

Tithing,  being  a  duty,  is  practicable. 
“But  how  shall  I  determine  my  tenth? 


My  business  is  such  that  I  can’t  tell 
exactly  what  my  tenth  is?”  It  may 
be  difficult,  but  it  can  be  done.  Suppose 
some  rich  friend  should  say  to  you: 
“Keep  a  strict  account  of  your  business 
and  at  the  end  of  a  year  I  will  make 
you  a  Christmas  present  equal  to  one- 
tenth  of  your  income.”  Do  you  think 
you  could  figure?  Count  out  your  tenth 
as  fast  as  it  comes,  and  lay  it  aside 
before  it  is  spent.  It’s  the  spent  dollar 
that’s  hard  to  give  to  God.  Call  it  no 
longer  yours,  but  His.  Say:  “This  is 
my  Master’s;  I  have  no  more  right  to  it 
than  I  have  to  my  neighbor’s  money.” 
You  say  you  could  not  live  on  what 
would  be  left.  Suppose  your  salary  or 
wages  should  be  cut  ten  per  cent.  You’d 
live.  But  God  lets  you  have  the  whole 
ten-tenths  for  your  income.  Count  this 
your  extra  earning  ability,  and  thank 
God  for  it.  Then  do  not  hoard  it,  keep 
it  circulating. 

Then  so  readjust  your  habits  of  thrift 
and  economy  that  you  can  pay  your 
tithe  without  embarrassment.  This 
may  demand  sacrifice.  But  ohp  in  this 


day,  when  the  sacrifices  of  the  Christian 
are  so  small,  compared,  with  the  days  of 
the  apostles  and  martyrs,  and  his  social 

l 

and  spiritual  privileges  so  great,  is  God 
asking  too  much  when  he  pleads  for  just 
one  little  tenth  of  our  abundance  for  his 
service?  Is  it  not  time  that  the  Christian 
church  began  to  put  a  difference  between 
itself  and  the  world?  The  world  goes 
on,  spending  its  money,  strength,  and 
intellect  in  a  mad  scramble  after  fad  and 
fashion,  straining  every  nerve  to  keep 
up  appearances,  and  the  church  rushes 
pell  mell  after  the  world,  and  sometimes 
even  exceeds  it  in  the  lust  for  place  and 
prominence.  Let  the  church  once  turn 
about  and  for  ten  years  forget  the  fren¬ 
zied  superficialities  of  the  world,  devot¬ 
ing  her  strength  to  a  supreme  effort  to 
usher  in  Messiah’s  Kingdom, — the  world 
would  be  astonished  at  the  regeneration. 
The  church,  too,  would  be  astonished  at 
the  turn  of  the  tide  toward  godliness. 
Pomp,  and  pride,  and  luxury,  and  com¬ 
petition  would  give  place  do  humility, 
charity,  industry,  temperance,  fraternity. 
The  world  has  caught  the  church  by  the 


hand,  and  is  leading  her  a  merry  dance, 
but,  oh,  before  God’s  kingdom  shall 
come,  and  his  will  be  done  on  earth  as 
in  heaven,  the  church  must  take  the 
reins,  assert  her  divine  right  to  guide 
the  world,  and  set  the  fashion  of 
righteousness,  obedience,  and  conformity 
to  the  will  of  God. 

“When  I  survey  the  wondrous  cross 
On  which  the  Prince  of  glory  died, 

My  richest  gain  I  count  but  loss, 

And  pour  contempt  on  all  my  pride. 

“Were  the  whole  realm  of  nature  mine, 
That  were  a  present  far  too  small; 

Love  so  amazing,  so  divine, 

Demands  my  soul,  my  life,  my  all.” 


(Preached  in  the  First  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  Pontiac,  Mich.,  May  9,  1909.) 


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